today's news of the week's top stories egypt's new constitution inscribing islamic law looks set to pass now with most voters seemingly packed with draft in a referendum preceded by weeks of fierce protests we talk about that plus. the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with the gun lobby logic which is incensed millions of americans calling for tougher controls as the country pays its final respects to the inference of the killed in last week's shooting massacre. i for it i moved

a step closer to banning americans from adopting russian children in response to washington slapping sanctions on russian officials. and wiki leaks prepare some new year revelations that julian assange promises more than a million secret files to leave no government around the world. live from the arctic new center in h.d. a widescreen welcome to our roundup of the top stories of the last seven days with me kevin. out of gyptian serve had their say in the historic vote on the new constitution that revealed deep divisions in the country and sparked violent protests the majority appear to have said yes to the islamist draft a document now but the opposition claims the referendum was riddled with fraud and is demanding an inquiry is cairo based journalist well true. the preliminary

results are in for egypt's contentious constitutional referendum egypt appears to voted for the constitution sixty four percent say yes. thirty six percent have said no this comes after mass dissent in the streets across the country with a cast three weeks against this constitution opposition forces say only in-force a presidential dictatorship and was drafted by an islamist dominated assembly of the twenty seven governors that went to vote in the last week only three voted against the constitution. this in the last round is largely due to the fact that in the last seventeen governments they went to vote a large amount of them are rural governorates who with large muslim brotherhood supports places their opposition forces for their part to say that the reason it is a yes is because of electoral violations they say they've seen a number of instances of power possible vote rigging including missing judges and

so on supervised polling stations missing ballot papers stuffed ballot boxes and also campaigning by the muslim brotherhood groups also ultra conservative salafist groups with in the polling stations telling people to vote yes the biggest news of the day however is the resignation of the vice president mohamed mickey this is largely seen to be perhaps because in the draft constitution as it currently stands there is no coast for the vice president this comes in the background of deepening violence across the country on friday we saw clashes between rival protest groups limits rallies in egypt second city of alexandria in support of the constitution there was rock throwing and also burning of cars the police had to intervene with tear gas that comes just one week after a similar clashes and xandra and of course three weeks after a very bloody scenes here in the capital cairo we saw ten people die with ropes.

outside the presidential palace with a deepening political crisis in neither side backing down now the constitution is likely to be put in place we can only expect dissent on the street and possible violence across the country. well true reporting those kids more reaction to the earlier referendum predictions from the egyptian opposition lived with enough or is there is a member of the committee of the store an opposition party headed by. mr a thanks for taking the time to be with r.t. the opposition groups you say the referendum results don't reflect the people's will they still saying that tonight. to begin with thank you for having me we definitely was definitely say this constitution and this referendum does not by any means represent the will of the people this constitution and issue of rand is is a disgrace to a nation that far hard for its freedom and for its rights it's

a document that strips rips out all the all the rights that we have earned and try to constitute a dictatorship and it has been taught by a referendum that was a massive massive rigging for the ballot boxes massive rigging for the voice of the people and the the the process itself was this was a self-defeating process it can only support it because it could only support less than thirty percent of the voters of the fifty million egyptians technically it can never support more than thirty percent of that number as for disciplines and then it was not overseen oversea by by by fair judges it was not overseas by proper. investigative authorities or or any legislative authorities as is set by law and as well we've seen we've seen massive rigging and corruption of the people's will and voices throughout the ballot boxes in every and each government rate we've seen the

give me some examples of are there a lot of you know is there anything times a certain. what we physically see tens and hundreds of schools tens and hundreds of schools where the ballot boxes and the referendum process was taking place at a convenient time when when the voices were very all the pool saw that the people were voting no the power was cut off of that particular neighborhood on that particular school. and and the brother added to the. judges and if you use it that school shuts down the school over. the front of the voters and the state with the ballot boxes not overseas for hours and hours until they close the developer office early before time and you have hundreds of people outside of the schools that did not have a chance to say their votes and nobody knows what happens with the ballot boxes and suddenly you find the results of these ballot boxes when you know that this

neighborhood that this particular schools and these were going to voters are all say you know and all signing for the rights against that constitution you find the results coming out as a favor of the constitution you will find a lot of schools that were a lot of other boxes sorry yes i'll just point out a couple more things as well and one of your fellow opposition members said the referendum is not the end of the road ahead so only one battle will continue the fight for the egyptian people how do you intend to continue that fight in the courts or on the streets now. now to begin with we we stand for the idea that we are against any results being officially announced before the high committee for elections to announce its final verdict on the documents and the things that we have submitted the evidence that we submitted of wide rigging and corrupting the voices and the ballot boxes if if we do not recognize any and the results unless we see a proper investigation and

a proper digging through these evidence and we receive a proper answer proper from the high committee of the election second of all this constitution nobody sorry no carry on for just. this constitution is a beginning of a dictatorship and taking of the rights of the people so you cannot stand down just saying we are rigged elections and we've lost the numbers there's a fight does not end here the fight does not end in the courts it's in the streets and the ballot boxes we have the elections coming we are going to we're going to be pushing as hard as possible as firm as possible to have a majority in the next elections to change this constitution and change this law all because of the constitution but between here and now we are going to stand firm against any trial of use of the bombs that they planted in the different articles of this constitution to be used and to be effective in taking out the freedoms and rights of egyptians but it should be another scenario plays out that it goes the

muslim brotherhoods way they repeatedly said and the constitution is only a transitional step towards democracy what do you expect president morsi is next moves to be if it does go through a democratic agenda or a path of assuming more power indeed as we saw last month. the roadmap for the for the morsi is quite clear and he has he has issued a presidential and he has issued a constitutional declaration just before the referendum that stated what kind of powers or how he sees the country being run by a president is a solitary a president that has all the powers and is and does not and is fighting against any profit or overseeing from the legislative from the legislative all from the traditional authorities we now know the intentions of morsi and the muslim brotherhood for the country they want a dictatorship they want a. classic dominated republic and they are looking

forward to increase the taxes increase of prices and a very very anti poor economical policies that they are trying to to inforce the country and they are putting us down economically they're going to go down on freedom they are shutting down newspapers they are going to attack and they're going to be attacking a lot of news channels that is bringing the truth we've seen how. good of the high council of the shura council the second house of the parliament how how they promise that it's not going to be dominated by the muslim brotherhood members and you see that sixty percent of the you know many of the ninety of the ninety people sixty of them are either most of brotherhood or are solidly in order a party we see how they lie continuously and we know that they want to do a very very harmful economical policy and we are trying our best to stand by the people arm in arm against these policies for for the sake of the people's right in

a better economy. who are going to have to leave it there i'm sorry to have to leave it there we're going to a couple of breaks to get to but we do appreciate it and thank them so much for being with us there live from cairo. well egypt is one of the countries go for the arab spring where many have been left unhappy about their revolutions planned later tonight we reported women across the arab who fired up entire nations during the uprisings and now say they've been left behind. but next it's been a heartbreaking week of farewells in newtown connecticut where all twenty children six adults have been laid to rest now after one of the worst mass shootings in american history the massacre ignited fierce debate on gun laws which critics say make it too easy for the public to access military grade weapons is out he's going to teach you can know whether america is ready to change its treasured second amendment. a week after the tragedy at the elementary school in newtown president

obama made the same pledge when he became president four years ago to try and get assault weapons off the streets of the new ones it's a pleasure he has failed to deliver on this is not the first issue the first incident going going up here for you. but the administration indicates this time it's different this time they're serious also a commitment and compromise. and most of all it will take coach shooting this boy it's a school and it's an important part of our hearing the debate taking place at the moment suggests a national consensus on the issue is far down the line and the dialogue between those who support and those who oppose such a ban comes down to this with guns comes safety if the guns are in the hands of the good guys if you not believe the stupid man on the powerful special interest group in washington the national rifle association has successfully fought any form of gun control legislation for years and the solution they offer to the epidemic of

gun violence that has plagued the us is more guns. the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun constitutional lawyer roger pilon things along the same lines and suggest arming teachers to prevent massacres like the one in newtown connecticut you're always going to have people who are going to be doing these kinds of evil deeds what you need to do is protect yourself against the weapons in schools and you go to a movie theater you have to carry a gun because there there will be there maybe someone with a semiautomatic you know wiping out the entire theater as we have seen is that what you're suggesting. where do you put it provocatively like that what i'm suggesting people movie theater yes because the police cannot be everywhere

there are almost three hundred million privately owned firearms in the u.s. around ten thousand americans die in gun violence every year the gun murder rate in the u.s. is almost twenty times higher than in the next twenty two richest and most populous nations combined. we have three hundred million guns in america but also the population of three hundred million people so it's one gun per person and if more guns were actually the solution to deterring shootings it many times it would have this problem in the first place the gun adam lanza use to kill twenty young children and six adults of the sandy hook elementary school was an a r fifteen semiautomatic rifle it's a military style rifle that can shoot hundreds of rounds at a record speed it belongs to adams mother who he also murdered nancy lanza a teacher at the same elementary school owned six guns numerous types of assault

weapons are readily available for purchase in the u.s. at gun stores at gun shows and online after the newtown tragedy many americans are calling for change again. make it inherently make it worth something. because you can't create change previous meaningful attempts to change hit a wall and that wall is the second amendment of the constitution the right of the people to bear arms skeptics say the most devious regime can do is require background checks at gun shows but again adam lanza's mother a teacher at an elementary school would have probably passed any of those checks and her military style rifle would have ended up in the hands of her son anyway that constitutional lawyer i spoke to seemed very certain that nothing major is going to change when it comes to. america does that mean more massacres like the tragedy in newtown in washington i'm going to. let the story we know you feel strongly about as well as a place and tell us what you think do you think anything could be done to reduce

the number of gun deaths in the u.s. was what you were telling us so far the softness to the graph thirty five percent of you think the media should be forbidden from overhyping massacres always makes the headlines doesn't it slightly feel if you say nothing can be done while the second amendment is in place but if if you have taken part thanks for the calling for new gun laws and restrictions ten percent of you propose increasing security in public places plenty of time to have your say still. but a series of moves this last week between moscow and washington including a ban in progress to stop americans adopting russian children which is approved by

russia's lower house of parliament thousands of americans responded by asking why to consider imposing sanctions on russian lawmakers now the russian ban which has also split the public opinion within the country here in russia is part of why the legislation meant to target those who abuse the rights of russians abroad it was sparked by washington imposing travel and financial restrictions on russian officials suspect of involvement in the death of an oyster game magnitsky he died in custody during the massive tax fraud investigation three years ago president putin though says the u.s. should look at its own record before criticizing others for human rights violations . our us partners and their lawmakers say they're concerned about human rights in our prisons that's fine of course but there are plenty of issues they have themselves abu ghraib and guantanamo where for years people have been detained without charge it's inconceivable to be prisoners walk around in chains like in the middle ages legalized torture inside their own country if

something like that happened here it would cause an international outcry if you put it all remains quiet in the us we've heard plenty of promises to close guantanamo but it's still there it's still operating maybe there is still torture going on there secret cia prisons has anyone been brought to account and they're pointing at our problems well thank you we're aware of that making this the ground for passing anti russian laws it's something absurd and we have in no way provoked such action and when it was president putin's comments came during his first major news conferences return to the kremlin we've been watching highlights of that q. and i session is coming up later this hour in fact here on r.t. and more news as well after a short break. which

is slow often enough and knows that to ride a horse you've got to catch it first. for him it's a daily routine that your software's of course are on the island of a horn and the heart of. his life on an isolated farm is about blue sky green grass and his horses were there sometimes it gets lonely here horses have become part of me no i've fallen off so many times sometimes they'd bite as well it's part of my every day life. been home to it now brats like you just saw for centuries most still live off the land cattle and fish. by coal is often called the pearl of

siberia and i said to be the pearl of by. it's a land of think forests. and vast staps. virtually undiscovered by tourists until some twenty years ago i haunt us quickly become a magnet for nature lovers and the real seekers you're quite some way from civilization here accommodation on the island is very basic so you can forget about a t.v. or even running water for most people a tent is the on the eruption but for those who come here it's exactly what they're looking for. in journey to buy coal can be unique a trip of a lifetime and the local say once you've seen it will be coming back again and again.

or again is going to be nervous to you for governments around the world that wiki leaks promises to publish more than a million secret files over the next twelve months releasing information it claims will affect every single country in the world the pledge came from the whistle blowing web site's founder julian assange to deliver their christmas address to supporters of governor of south dakota or an embassy in london is speech marks six months since the sons went in to seek political asylum and avoid extradition winner ever since facing arrest if he steps outside christian have for instance spoke to me from wiki leaks he insists the songes predicament won't stop the site from it strive for truth and transparency. well we know about the ongoing. investigation and the secret grand jury in alessandro in virginia there is. an ongoing attempt to

find an angle to bring charges against julian and possibly all those working for we believe as a very serious matter of course very shameful for the obama administration not to stop that for the man who was right even taken four years ago to increase transparency and what we have seen is totally the opposite which hunt against whistleblowers. that has no first place in history it will continue to work as we have done despite the difficult situation that you has been in in the ecuador embassy now for six months but probably it was their house arrest that hasn't stopped us we have continued to work. the economic blockade has not stopped us either even though we are getting into a dire situation financially but that's a battle that we have decided to turn into an all out war and until we have a victory there as well in the new year. other stores are talking about well some

retired libyans choose a coaching career this take a very different path this three time champion now having a very saucy second job in las vegas want to find out what i'm going to tell you can find it online marti dot com also world watch out it seems the dates of the but armageddon a lot of people worried about last week's apparently being delayed for tell you that r.t. dot com is the place where you can find out where now maybe. thousands of protesters held a series of rallies in bahrain this last week demanding a transitional government and the removal of the prime minister who's been running the country for about forty years some demonstrations turned violent as police fired tear gas and arrested activists one of them for posting on twitter about the

protests his tweets in fact describe security forces directing pepper spray women's protesters faces but he was accused of giving out false information out of the day there because repeatedly being criticized by human rights groups for its crackdown on the opposition movement which has seen eighty people killed during almost two years of unrest political scientists calling cavell told us that unlike other arab uprisings western governments not particularly interested in what the bahrain authorities are getting up to. they are trying to crack down on the opposition to the international community that they have lifted the ban protests but at the same time there must be just as they are jail you know three quarters of the population are opposed to them and the population is no longer scared of them the population wants the al khalifa to abdicate to leave the country they want democracy they're tired of two hundred thirty years of dictatorship why is there

such silence in the united states when the violations of human rights are so gross i just mean are generally quiet it is completely prophecy and of course you and everyone else no mysteries and that's because the fearfully based in bahrain is still uncertain whether bahrain's arab spring style uprising will spill into a full scale revolution as happened in other nations with the support of western states now when the first wave of unrest began of course in china zero coltan years ago few could have seen how far it could have spread of what results it would bring ridiculous reports now from the cradle of the arab spring on that was left behind. it began here in tunisia two years ago when a poverty stricken french vendor search yourself on fire in an act of desperation some say he was a hero others say he was a drunkard with a history of psychological problems whatever mohali was this is real motivation was his act of self-immolation set up a string of events which became known as the arab spring decades old regimes were

toppled what came to replace them is hardly what most of the people in these countries had in mind when they were doing the revolutions they wanted freedom of speech and free elections bred on their tables and jobs what they got seems to be a very different result situationist war strife comparison to. comparison to the years before. the revolution personally i don't feel safe. when we see. all the violence of the police. or of salafist. in from kuala smash attacked by by some nationalist people. there are less freedoms right now when it comes to and there were freedoms there are attacks on individual freedoms every day i received so many messages from girls

saying but they were. straight even by police men. who didn't tolerate their or their way off dressing this used to be a common pattern in the countries that i showed the so-called arab spring just two years ago hopes of transition from authoritarian regime to a new democratic forms of government seem to have altered rising islamism economy is in shambles and increasing discontent the pattern is the same in tunisia and egypt where people are pouring out on the streets again with a renewed. sest i think a lot of people did but the muslim brotherhood in egypt did so because they wanted economic changes not just getting rid of mubarak and having morsi and morsi no he's obviously you know very different political figure to mubarak in terms of his ideology has carried on much the same policies in terms of economic policy in libya the uprising took a bloody turn moammar gadhafi who ruled the country for over forty years was

deposed and killed in two thousand and eleven and he merely being a government has been struggling to control parts of the country going as far as besieging the entire town of bani walid for allegedly providing shelter to diehard khadafi supporters the are using heavy machinery to demolish the demolished houses they can't be using now. again it's just a feeling people children and now i'm dad are really sick reaming we would not humanity of the one of the us save our family. i got this time to make libya now the quirk of a place where no one can stop them and they have unlimited money and we're going to the western leaders were quick to praise changes across the middle east they said it was the beginning of a new democratic era for the region but the model of democracy they may have had in

mind doesn't seem to be the right fit i think it has to be a different type of a democratic system. the democracy that the u.s. would like to impose upon egypt tunisia and morocco and the other countries throughout the region and even libya where what was waged last year to topple the gadhafi government is not suitable to the people inside of that region in tunisia in and out of r.t. . russia's foreign minister says western states are losing control over the syrian rebels and would not be prepared to intervene in the country's civil conflict also said that during private talks with western officials he got the impression that the us and its allies were quietly praying for russia and china to carry on blocking intervention at the un those countries repeatedly vetoed such resolutions of syria party spoke exclusively to the foreign minister who described the international community's only dick and then rebel atrocities as. group.